I have been testing a lot of different LTE router and antenna combinations this year from Peplink, MikroTik, Teltonika, Poynting and more.
There has been a lot going on lately, and I wanted to provide an update on what I am working on and testing. My primary focus has been on internet connectivity aboard which has become even more important with the current world situation.
Having a reliable setup has always been one of my top goals, usually leveraging several technologies. This article covers the tech that I used on my boat.
In the last 4 months, I have been developing my overall network on board Rendezvous. I wanted a good WiFi/Ethernet network to connect me to the outside world, as well as a well developed NMEA 2000 network for marine equipment while underway. So far, here's what I have...
I've written a lot about my boat network, and in particular, Peplink products that offer a ton of functionality and features. For the last 6 months, I have been playing with configurations and hardware that cost less, but still provide flexibility and features that more expensive solutions offer.
T-Mobile changed the unlimited benefit while roaming - the monthly data allowance has shrunk, and the speeds have dropped from LTE to 3G once you hit that limit. Boaters will be affected who use T-Mobile, as I do, out on the water.
I have spent most of my professional life working on and fixing networks, and always want my personal network to be as reliable, speedy, and full of features as possible. My boats are no exception
Large sailboat network including NMEA 2000, SeaTalk, MasterBus, WiFi and ethernet. I believe in deeply integrated and instrumented systems, and want to know everything about anything, anywhere.
Having an AIS receiver on the sailboat means I can take that data and share it with AIS websites, as a base station. Doing that from a bandwidth-limited cellular connection creates some challenges which can be overcome with some scripting.
